The invention relates to an instrument holder for a surgical instrument, comprising a shank equipped with a head designed to receive an instrument, and an annular locking component mounted so as to slide about the shank, under the head, equipped with locking means which cooperate with the head so as to lock the instrument on the head, and pushed against the head by a helical spring.
An instrument holder of this type is known in particular from U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,658,290 and 5,236,433, the contents of which are incorporated by reference.
A surgical instrument, for example for preparing for the fitting of a hip prosthesis, works in a medium which causes considerable soiling of the instrument and the instrument holder. Moreover, a surgical instrument holder must be cleaned very frequently and very carefully in order to avoid any risk of infection. However, cleaning of surgical instruments is difficult, in particular cleaning of the space between the shank and the locking component on account of the presence of bone debris and coagulated blood.
The object of the invention is to provide optimum conditions for rapid cleaning.
To this end, the instrument holder according to the invention is distinguished by the fact that the thrust spring bears on a ring sliding on the shank, and that the shank and the ring have means of connection set in use manually by rotation of the ring, in such a way that the release of the ring allows the locking component, the spring and the ring to slide freely on the shank. This almost instantaneous disassembly of the component parts of the instrument holder allows it to be thoroughly and quickly cleaned.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the shank has, under the head, a section with a diameter greater than the diameter of the rest of the shank, on which section the ring is fixed by a bayonet fastening.
The play of the components making up the locking means on the shank permits good cleaning without it being necessary to remove these components from the shank, which avoids the risk of losing a component or mixing them up, and it obviates the need to fit the components back on the shank. The fastening and release of the ring take place instantaneously, which represents a saving in time. This makes it possible to ensure that a complete kit of instruments is not rendered unusable because of a single component being inoperative.
The head and the fastening and locking means of the instrument can be designed in many ways. These means do not form part of the actual invention.